Providing spiritual and pastoral care to professional and amateur sport

New Cardiff University Masters in Sports Chaplaincy

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Welcome to Sports Chaplaincy UK

There are hundreds of chaplains in the UK and Ireland, providing spiritual and pastoral care to professional and amateur sport. Sports Chaplaincy UK is increasingly involved in helping sporting organisations support, train and appoint sports chaplains.

Every athlete needs some kind of support and encouragement and a chaplain can be a valuable source of this support.

Anne Wafula Strike

Former Paralympian and Gold medallist athlete, author, and advocate for Play for Change

Chaplains can be of help to all sorts of people involved with sport, when crisis, need or difficulty comes. I commend the idea of sports chaplaincy and the work of Sports Chaplaincy UK to you.

Sir Alex Ferguson, CBE

Director & Ambassador of Manchester United

As a former player, coach and now manager I cannot recommend highly enough the vital role played by chaplains within football clubs.

Chris Powell

Former manager of Huddersfield Town FC and Charlton Athletic

Our chaplain has been invaluable to us as an organisation. She has been a fixed point of support for our senior players and workforce for almost 18 months. We are excited about her expanding the support to our age group squads over the coming months and look forward to her joining us for many more seasons to come

Sarah Jones

CEO, Welsh Netball

Providing Sports Chaplaincy has become an important part of our approach to equality and ethical behaviours. Aside from providing a friendly, familiar face and an open door to confidential advice and support for everyone, there have also been occasions when our Sports Chaplains have made significant and timely interventions supporting athletes, staff and wider service users through some difficult and challenging times.

Jon Morgan

Exec Director of Disability Sports Wales

Sports Chaplaincy is a must have for 21st century athletes.

Paul Elliott, CBE, MBE

Former English professional footballer, member of the FA Inclusion Advisory Board & SCUK Ambassador

Sports Chaplaincy has been of huge personal and group benefit within our female international team camp environments. The support has been provided within all our age group teams and senior squad and has proved to be extremely beneficial for players.

Jayne Ludlow

Women’s National Teams Manager Football Association of Wales

A very special thank you to our Club Chaplain, Duncan Strathdee. A number of people associated with the club have faced personal difficulties over the course of this season and, unseen and unheralded, Duncan has provided them with a listening ear, comfort and guidance that I know has been very much appreciated.

Stuart Brown

Chairman of Stirling Albion FC

I would encourage all players the importance of talking and getting off things of your chest. Chaplains need to remind the players that the support is there and they can talk to you about anything – talking is so important.

Robbie Hunter Paul

Retired Rugby League International and TV pundit

“Its not good for man to be alone” Genesis 2:18;

We are told in just the second chapter of the bible that we don’t thrive in isolation..

Sport often creates wonderful environments in which communities are built and relationships are allowed to flourish.

In my experiences as a Christian professional rugby league player, Sports Chaplaincy UK has been the archetypal nourishment that encourages those environments to thrive.

Jamie Jones Buchanan

A professional rugby league player and Sports Chplaincy UK Ambassador

Chaplaincy brings a personal touch- people feel they can be listened to as individuals. If chaplaincy was established in every club, I believe it would be of huge benefit to the game as a whole.

Sir Ian McGeechan, OBE

Former coach of Scotland and the British and Irish Lions

The JD Welsh Premier League is proud to endorse and recommend this important and practical service which has been made available to member clubs of our National League in Wales. We’re very happy that this support network is easily accessible to individuals at our clubs.